Just last week, me and my friends in Oakhouse Kichijoji 2 were talking about going to Tokyo Game Show.
For people who love games like me, it is like the-must-go place, especially if you are in Tokyo area. The thing is… where TGS is held isn’t really in Tokyo. It’s in Chiba, the neighboring prefecture. That’s one thing you have to keep in mind if you’re planning to go there. I live in Tachikawa Garden Town which is the west side of Tokyo, it takes around two hours to reach the venue.
Visiting Tokyo Game Show was the second time for me. Last year I went for my job as a journalist. I was fortunate to be able to go on a business day which is the day for people with business pass or media pass. Business days are not as crowded as public days but I’d say it’s worth going on a public day as you get to feel vive of this special day.
Lunch at the closest station to the venue
Photo by Flickr.
Before I move on to talk about how TGS was, I’d like to tell you some great lunch I had on the day I went to TGS. I happened to find Tokyo Chikara Meshi at Kaihin Makuhari Station, which is the closest station the venue. Tokyo Chikara Meshi is one of the BIG3 of beef bowl chain in Japan. I should say it was. Beef bowl has been a pretty common eat out food in Japan and there are 2 major chains dominating the market; Yoshino-ya and Matsu-ya. There was, however, the third party until several years ago. That is Tokyo Chikara Meshi.
I am a big fan of Matsu-ya because it actually tastes good and healthy as well. But I actually think Tokyo Chikara meshi tastes the best out of all three. It’s not really the healthy choice, I admit, because they use a lot of butter, but it used to be my comfort food before they shut down most of the stores in Tokyo. I heard it’s because of their operation. They say their beef bowl is grilled-beef bowl, which is different from the ordinary beef bowl which is simmered.
There is only a few Tokyo Chikara meshi store left in Tokyo and I found one of a few survivors that day.
Beef, butter, and special soy sauce base flavour and its grilled surface. This is one of the combinations that our brains probably cannot resist.
There are a few stores you can check out in the center of Tokyo, I recommend everyone to try their beef bowl.
Back to TGS…
Enough with the beef bowl…
I was overwhelmed with how packed the TGS was. Not just the venue, the trains and train stations were crowded too.
These are only some of the photos I took at the venue.
I saw multiple booth of SONY where you get to play their new games. I especially liked how they displayed PSVR section. The tron-ish design and lighting were really cool even if you’re not the one playing the game.
CAPCON had this giant booth for Resident Evil. I saw many people lining up just to get inside. I saw the game play of BIOHAZARD RE:2 (not sure the English title) and it seemed quite impressive. I am too scared to play Resident Evil but I’d love to see my friend playing it.
I found this mysterious booth and it caught my attention. As a big fan of Metal Gear Solid series, Kojima production’s new game ”Death Stranding” is something I’m really excited about. They say the release date is March 2019.
Anyway, the booth I found was just a fan store. They were selling some T-shirts and goods. I was tempted but I didn’t get to buy anything in the end.
I didn’t have all day to go to all the booth in TGS but I enjoyed the visit a lot. I saw many Japanese brands were there but I hope to see other foreign brands more next year. or maybe next year there might be a new game console coming out which would be super cool.
